Although gaming has existed in some form for many years, its present familiar form of slot machines, table games, sports books, etc. has mainly developed in the last few decades, in which gaming has come under careful state regulation. One aspect of this regulation for gaming devices is the need to protect internal portions of the devices so that players do not interfere with their operation in attempts to receive payouts by means other than wagering. To accomplish this, gaming machine manufacturers have worked closely with gaming operators, such as casinos, to develop security systems for gaming machines that conform to the necessary security regulations while still providing a system where a multitude of operators can have reasonably easy access to portions of the gaming devices for tasks such as repairs, coin hopper fills, cashless ticket paper replacement, and even interchanging game processors.
In gaming devices such as slot machines or video poker, a simple method of meeting the above needs is to provide an access door on a gaming device that is secured by a lock. This allows gaming operator personnel to access the internal portions of the gaming device by carrying keys while securing these internal portions from players. However, it was realized that some of the internal portions of the gaming devices needed to be accessed often, such as the coin hopper and cashless ticket paper, while other portions required access less often, such as the gaming device processor. This also created a security problem in establishments operating more than a few gaming devices, such as casinos, because upper level casino employees were too busy to respond to all of the minor access needs of the gaming devices, while lower level casino floor employees, such as slot attendants, did not have the proper clearance to have access to the gaming device processors. More specifically, because altering the payout characteristics of a gaming device is more easily accomplished with access to critical gaming components, such as a gaming processor and local memory, there is a need to have an increased security level for these components as compared to less critical components, such as ticket printers and coin hoppers.
To address the above problem, conventional gaming devices have been implemented in at least two manners. One manner is to provide a second secured portion inside the internal portion of the gaming device that is accessible to all levels of casino personnel. This has been implemented by using an internal security door with a second lock. Thus, to access these portions of the gaming device, casino personnel would need a first key to gain access to the main internal portion of the gaming device and then a second key to open the second secured portion inside the main internal portion. A second manner of providing this additional security is to include two internal portions of the gaming device separated from each other, where each internal area was accessible through a separate door using a separate lock and separate means of opening each door. Here, lower level casino personnel, such as slot attendants, would have a key to only the less secure portion of the gaming device. The upper level casino personnel and slot technicians would have the other key to access the higher security level portion, but would also need to carry the second key to access any of the gaming components in the other portion of the gaming device.
However, each of these conventional manners of addressing the above problem comes with its own issues. In the first scenario where the gaming device has a second internal secured portion in a main internal portion, an upper level casino employee or a slot technician who needs access to this second internal secured portion is required to have means to unlock both secured areas. In addition, extra time is needed to gain access to both areas. Since increased player time at a gaming device is a primary focus of gaming operations, this extra time in gaining access, and complications arising from having only one of the access keys, takes away from player time and is undesirable. Similarly, in the second scenario with the separate doors, upper level casino personnel and slot technicians would need to carry keys or other means to access both internal portions of the gaming device. Also, the two separate means of opening each door increases service time on the machine and must both be located in a convenient place on the gaming machine to provide access on a crowded gaming floor where gaming machines are often located in close proximity to each other. These and other problems in the conventional gaming devices are addressed by embodiments of the present invention.